Matz started working on Ruby in 1993, but it took him until 1995 to make a public release. Yet, it took at least another 5 years to catch the eye of the mainstream developers. DHH, also did worked more than 1 1/2 years on Rails behind closed doors. During this period, Matz or DHH surely wouldn't have imagined how their work would be accepted by the public or where this would end up.